Briefer Notices

BRIEFER NOTICES Prepared by John and Barbara Curtis "The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 50 year Index, 1914-1964." was published at Bioomington, Indiana, in 1973 by the Organization of American Historians. After 1964 this periodical became known as The Journal of American History. The 50 year index is a valuable reference tool for scholars and writers and contains a number of entries relating to Quakers , and to individual Friends. "Isaac Norris the Councillor, master of Norriton Manor" is an article prepared by William T. Parsons for the Fall, 1973, issue of the Bulletin of The Historical Society of Montgomery County. It is an account of the life of the elder Isaac Norris with particular reference to his development of his country plantation "Norriton Manor." A long anticipated title which became available in late summer 1974 is "Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Printing," prepared by C. William Miller of Temple University as a publication of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1974. There is much of interest to scholars of Quakerism in this exemplary descriptive bibliography of Franklin's printing from broadsides to books. An interesting booklet from England is entitled "Employer and employed: Ford, Ayrton & Co., Ltd., silk spinners . . . ," Edington, Wilts., 1974. joint authors Elizabeth R. and John H. P. Pafford tell the story of a Quaker industrial firm in which the workers were truly involved in all aspects of the business from manufacturing to management, to shareholding. Benson Ford established the concern in 1870 in Leeds and it continued to operate for just a century before closing in Bentham in 1970. This study was sponsored by the Pasold Research Fund in Edington. Wilts., BA 13 4PJ and may be obtained at a cost of £.90 in paper. "Quaker Book Titles—A bibliography of works available in selected libraries of Kentucky concerning Quakerism" by Jonathan Neff and George Parker of Earlham College and Berea College, respectively. This guide to Friends' books in eight libraries in the state will be of great help to students of Quakerism in that area. Robert W. Wells has had an article in the William fc Mary Quarterly, v. 29 (1972), p. 415-442 entitled "Quaker marriage patterns in colonial perspective ." The effects of changing social conditions on 276 families is traced from the published records of Friends in New York City, Flushing, Jericho and Westbury in New York, Plainfield & Rahway, Salem and Burlington in New Jersey, and Falls and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Folklore magazine, v. 33 (Winter 1973-74 issue) p. 2-15 has an article by James Spencer Edwards on the topic "Wills and Inventories 70 BRIEFER NOTICES71 of the first purchasers of the Welsh tracts." This examination of 17 wills and inventories of early Welsh settlers demonstrates the fact that "at the beginning it was a distinctive community . . . they continued to speak Welsh." A. Day Bradley sends word of the publication in The Long Island Courant nearly ten years ago of an account of an early Quaker family written by Emily Rushmore Underhill which had not been brought to our attention until now. Notes on the Underhill family and its historic house built on land purchased from the Indians in 1684 appeared originally in v. 1 (1965), p. 48-59. "A patriot's dilemma: the treatment of passive Loyalists and neutrals in revolutionary Maryland" is the topic of R. A. Overfeld's article in the Maryland Historical Magazine, v. 68 (1973), p. 140-159. It includes accounts of hardships suffered by Friends for refusal of affirmation of allegiance and from double and triple taxation arising from other acts of nonconformity . Robert F. Oaks deals with similar problems in his article "Philadelphians in exile; the problem of loyalty during the American Revolution." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 96 (1972), p. 298-325. John J. Brinklet has done Quaker genealogists a fine favor through his work in reproducing "The register of West River Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) on the Western Shore of Maryland." This material appears in v. 14 (1973), no. 2, p. 1-4; no. 3, p. 5-8 of TAe Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin. A similar listing of births, deaths and marriages in Clifts Monthly Meeting in Calvert County...